


The Quiet Which Accompanies the Rain

by keyboardclicks



Category: Maurice (1987), Maurice - E. M. Forster
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Fluff and Smut, M/M, Mild Smut, POV First Person, aka all I ever write for these two dear lord, shameless fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-21
Updated: 2017-02-21
Packaged: 2018-09-26 01:00:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9855011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/keyboardclicks/pseuds/keyboardclicks
Summary: Rain meant muddy and unstable ground, not good for cutting trees.  Rain meant waterlogged wood, unsellable until it could be properly dried.  Rain meant nobody would be in town, so no customers.  Rain meant a day off.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [A Happier Year (Near About)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5114666) by [Kimbeen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kimbeen/pseuds/Kimbeen). 



> Another fic based on Kimbeen's wonderful stories! I do hope you'll forgive me for only ever writing after you, but you've created such a wonderful story for Alec and Maurice that any post-canon ideas I get are heavily influenced by what you've written. You haven't gotten to Alec and Maurice having their own cottage-in-the-woods (yet), but I couldn't help my imagination running away with me!  
> Really, though, if you haven't read Kimbeen's wonderful stories you'll probably be rather confused reading this one because I do reference it a number of times. I'm sure you can enjoy my story either way but context is certainly nice! Whether you've read the other stories or not, I hope you enjoy this one <3

On a very ordinary morning I awoke to the sound of rain, rhythmic and peaceful on the roof of the cottage and the leaves of the trees all around.  Of course this was not unusual for England, however it sounded to be very near storming if only missing the theatrics of lightning and thunder.  Rain meant the ground would be muddy and wet _especially_ near the river where Alec and I had lately been working on thinning out the tree population.  We had worked in the rain before, of course, but it seemed dangerous to do so on a riverbank in what sounded like such a violent downpour.  Best to leave the woodcutting for another day, I thought.  Not to mention anything Alec and I had not put away was sure to be soaked and useless to sell for the time, and town was sure to be almost completely deserted.  Rain -at least rain of this caliber- meant a day off.

Gleeful from this realization I pulled the blankets further up to my chin and curled tighter around Alec, nuzzling into his hair and thinking about how best we could spend this day.  Alec was a lively boy, filled with a constant and anxious energy.  I knew he couldn’t merely sit around and wait for the day to pass, even if he was prone to fits of daydreaming do-lallying regardless of almost any situation.  But here, bundled amongst the pillows and blankets of our shared bed, I knew I could at least persuade him to lounge and doze in the warmth until it all became too much and he had to expel his exuberance in one way or another.  One trick I had learned, however, was that if he was to expel that energy early in the day, staying in bed became a much more appealing option.

With barely a thought I let one hand travel innocently beneath Alec’s pajama shirt, softly brushing over the skin.  In his sleep Alec made a soft grunting noise, then another when my opposite hand began to touch softly at the warm, malleable bulge between his legs.  Nothing substantial or teasing, just soft and firm pressing through the fabric.  I nosed Alec’s curly, messy hair and pressed kisses to his skull, then intermittently down his chin before picking a favorite spot just below his left ear to lavish with attention.  This continued for some minutes, interspersed with very welcome little moans and sighs from the object of my -skillful, if I may boast!- devotions.  He shifted against me, then I heard his breath catch.

“Mmm… what a way to wake up...” he murmured sleepily.  “Ooh fuck, that feels lovely…”

I nibbled tenderly at the skin beneath his ear and his breath came out in a puff.

“It’s raining today,” I murmured.  “Too hard to work; no use getting out of bed...”

“Well ain’t that fortunate,” he chuckled, but it melted into a moan.  “Oooh… Maurice…”

Steadily his length was hardening and I stroked it still softly through his cotton trousers.  We said very little, I very occupied with having Alec pressed against me and he likely just as occupied with being pressed against.  His hips bucked steadily though I could tell he was attempting to keep them still, keep the passion contained.  When my hand slipped below his waistband and gave the gleeful contact of skin to skin, though, he did groan and turn his head to muffle himself uselessly in the pillow.  My hand against his chest felt the quickening beat of his heart.

“Sweet boy,” I sighed.  “Close already?”  Not surprising; the warm intimacy of morning disregarded any silly barriers of appropriacy.

“Y-yeah…”

I did not speed up, did not hurry him along to release.  My hand around his prick was firm and steady, providing slow and almost teasing strokes, but it was not torturous.  Everything was warm and sleepy and pleasant and Alec practically melted beneath me.  There was no rush, no frenzied and carnal building of suspense, only Alec and his pleasure and his voice.

“Maurice… Maurice…”

He was breathless, beautifully so.  I could imagine the flush on his cheeks and wide , hazy darkness of his eyes.  With every inch of his back against my front, muscles twitching in anticipation, he was _gorgeous._  For only a moment did I tease, touching just against his leaking tip and then fingering around the sensitive underside of his head, being rewarded with a louder, more intense moan.

“Come on then,” I softly encouraged, perhaps speeding my hand up just the tiniest bit.  “Come on, Alec, there’s a lad…”

The world felt contained to this moment; there was nothing outside of the rain hitting the roof and trees around us, nothing but him and me and the places our bodies connected.  I focused entirely on Alec’s pleasure, bringing him off and making him feel warm and needed and loved.  The only things I ever wanted him to feel.

He came with a strangled curse and a quiet, shuddering breath, willing himself to be as still and quiet as possible so as not to break the peace of the morning.  Then he became little more than a heavy, panting weight in my arms.  I peppered the back of his neck with soft kisses, his chest heaving and heart pounding beneath my hand.  Oh, my darling boy, I only hope I didn’t tire you out too much…

Alec turned round in my grasp, kissing me before laying his head beneath my chin and nuzzling there affectionately, placing sweet kisses against my skin.  Now I rubbed at his back, one hand on his shoulder blades and one on the back of his waist, caressing the warm and slightly sweaty skin beneath his shirt.

“Do me a favor,” Alec rumbled against my chest, “‘n wake me up like that more often.”

We hugged so tightly that our ribs creaked and I was too breathless to laugh even as we began to roll around on the bed in a mock tussle.  The thing creaked and clanked against the wall and it was an altogether much noisier affair than the previous one but there were no neighbors to fear and so we did nothing to stop.  It ended with Alec’s back pressed against the mattress as I kissed him slowly and deeply, pulling away only for air and receiving a bright-eyed and crooked smile.  We gazed at each other and I felt as Alec’s hand began stroking up and down my thigh, his eyebrows raised in a question.

“I’m alright,” I told him, planting a gentle kiss upon his brow.  “Don’t trouble yourself.”

Of course he said it was no trouble, but I assured him that really, I wasn’t wanting for anything at the moment.  It took some more sweet kisses and pets of his eternally untamed hair to convince him, but soon Alec was as sweet and malleable as he could ever be.

“We’ll have to get up at some point,” he observed with his face against my chest.

“I see no reason for that.”

“There’s food to eat; that’s one reason.”

“I’ll put on some tea and make some toast.  There’s no reason for you to get up.”  Here again I kissed him, slightly pulling his plump lower lip between my own before pulling away.  Apparently this distracted and dizzied him because for a moment Alec only looked at me dreamily, before shaking his head and apparently regaining his power of speech.

“And wot’m I supposed to do?  Lay around in bed all day?”

“Not all day, if you don’t like,” I soothed, repeatedly tucking hair behind his ear.  “But we both know there’s little use working today; for now wouldn’t it be nice to rest?  Just for a little while?”

Alec continued to protest.  “I ain’t done nowt to deserve it… ‘s not like I’m sick or invalid or summat.”  His fingers toyed absently with the front of my shirt, eyes downcast and slightly pensive.  I took his hand in my own, running my thumb over the thick callouses on his palm and the tips of his fingers.  I kissed one of them, gently.

“You do so much for me,” I admitted quietly.  “You always have.  The quarry, the tunnel… even here.  You’ve been pulling two thirds of the weight from the start while I merely run along behind you and try to keep up.”  It was something which had troubled me for some time, but which I rarely voiced for I knew almost exactly how Alec would respond.

“Not here!” he protested.  “Sure, mebes in the quarry, but it were your first real job, yeah?  You was gettin’ used to it, and it were ‘ard make no mistake!  Course you struggled to keep up.  ‘N in London, I’ve told you!  The work we did were different but you did just as much as me.”  That simply wasn’t true; no matter how one looked at it Alec did far more difficult and strenuous work than I ever did during those few months together in the city.  Whatever Alec said, I would always feel guilty for having had a relatively simple and comfortable job while he had been toiling away for hours in a cold, dark hole in the ground so that he came home completely exhausted.

“An’ here!” he continued.  “Here we’s equals!  A hundred percent.”  He jabbed me playfully in the chest with his finger.

“You’re better at it all than I am,” I continued to protest.  “Everything’s so physical… of course I expected it would be but I’m still-”

“So you’s a bit to learn.  You’ll catch up!”

He was trying to make me feel better.  I realized it and kissed him slowly, sweetly.

“Just let me do this for you,” I insisted, urging him to remain in bed with a gentle hand upon his chest.  “Can’t you rest for just a little while?  Let me take care of you, Alec; I _want_ to.”

He looked at me for a moment, seeming to pout before a reluctant smile spread across his face.  “Alright, pet,” he said.  “If it pleases you.”

It did.  In a fit of affection I kissed his nose and temple before rolling myself from the bed and making quick work of getting to the kitchen.  Alec chuckled as I left him and I heard those blankets which had been dropped to the floor in our fighting being picked back and-I hoped-wrapped snuggly around the bed’s remaining occupant.  In the small kitchen I busied myself fixing breakfast, content to work in the rain's blanket of quiet.  A glance out the window confirmed what I had thought; it was coming down in droves, making it nearly impossible to even see past the glass.  There was no sound of birds singing or fluttering from tree to tree; they were likely all bundled up in their nests, trying to stay safe and dry.  From the river drifted the muffled sound of frogs, no doubt happy with the break in sunny weather and splashing merrily in the water and mud.  (Picking up the habit from Alec, I had of late begun to humanize the different animals of the world, most especially those from our corner of the greenwood.  I did, however, attempt to refrain from doing so to those chickens and turkeys now stowed safely away in their coops, for it made the job of preparing them for supper fiendishly difficult.)

“Not falling back to sleep, I hope,” I jested from the doorway, finding Alec wrapped in a veritable nest of blankets with his face buried in the pillow.  He peaked out with one eye and I could see the grin as I sat myself beside him, careful not to spill any of our breakfast.  “And after all the trouble I went through.”

“Told ye not to,” he reminded, wriggling out of the blankets to prop himself up against the headboard.  “You’s spoiling me, you is.  Ma never even brought me food’n bed, ‘less I were sick summat terrible.”  All the same he immediately reached for the toast, little crumbs of bread and a drop of jam having to be licked away from the outer corner of his mouth after the first bite.  “And even then,” he said, “only when I were little.”

With the tray balanced precariously upon each of our legs -we were sat very close so that this could be accomplished- I chanced to place a kiss in the wild curls of Alec’s hair.  “And I told you that I wanted to do it.  I adore caring for you; I think I was made for it.”

I did not think that what I said came across as particularly amusing, and so was surprised when Alec laughed.  I shot him a questioning look over my tea, and he swallowed his bite of eggs before responding.

“Mm, it’s just that Fred said somethin’ to me once and you reminded me of it.”

“And what was that?”  

“Oh, well..”  Equally surprised was I to find Alec suddenly bashful, certainly different from his normal bravado and knowing sensuality.  “He were just sayin’... how I were the pet of the family, the little one meant for coddlin’ and spoilin’.  Suppose he weren’t wrong; Ma always did sorta favor me since I were her last little one.  But Fred, he says to me that I were made for mollyin’ and lovin’, just like you’re doin’ now.”  He flashed me a crooked grin with a slight shrug of his shoulders.  “Guess I never really thought of it ‘til he mentioned…”

Watching Alec I wondered why he was so bashful.  Was it not a wonderful thing to be loved?  To adore and be adored in return?  Alec was so many things, but most of all to me he seemed to have been made to fit snugly within my arms, as simultaneously small and strong as he was.  But perhaps that was it?  Alec was often the more diminutive one in a group of men, but of course no less strong or hard working.  Perhaps he feared that his nature, that which made him so easy to love and coddle, meant he would not be taken seriously?  I wondered if this was a true insecurity or if I was finding connections where the did not exist.  

Whatever the case was, I could not lie about this.  “I think your brother was right,” I said.

Alec raised questioning, doubting eyebrows.  Curls of hair fell into his face and he tossed them away.  “Yeah?  How’s that?”

“You make people love you,” I replied simply.  “Perhaps not on purpose, I admit, but there’s just something about you that’s incredibly charming.  You get along with people so easily; I’ve noticed it.  You make them care for you, make them want to help you.  Take Pete, for example!  A-and Katherine!  You hadn’t seen either of them in ages yet they were so willing to help you -and me!  Simply because I was your friend!  You leave an impression on people.”

He had flushed, now, almost disbelieving.  His smile was closed but still crooked and he rubbed the back of his neck with his gaze down on the messy breakfast tray.

“Pete’s a good bloke; he’ll help nearly anyone who asks.  An’ Kate she's a grand girl, as well, and...”  ‘She was an old flame’ went unsaid, and I was glad.

“Be that as it may,” I insisted, “what I said is true.  People are drawn to you, and they almost always _like_ you; it’s just how you are.  You’re charismatic and personable… You’re _likeable_ , if not absolutely lovable.”  And here I knocked against him playfully, nearly spilling tea all over the both of us but thankfully not spoiling the moment by doing so.  “And if not by anyone else, then by me.”  I took his chin in my hand and turned his face towards me, playfully rough when I kissed him.  “I can hardly ever resist caring for you; I think it’s those big, darling doe-eyes of yours.”  All very true; I never could resist an opportunity to coddle or care for him, and those brown eyes had an eternally hypnotic effect on me, but my tone was jestful and I was sure Alec knew it well, especially when I gave his jaw a small shake like an overbearing auntie would to her most precious niece or nephew.  In response Alec scrunched up his face like said petulant child and batted my hand from his chin, making an upset noise in the back of his throat.

“Oh, sod off, you,” he said once free of my grasp, but the tone was not cruel.  With conviction he took another bite of eggs, chewed more deliberately than was perhaps necessary, and attempted to hide the smile which repeatedly attempted to invade his features.  To my delight, it did not work.

“I love caring for you,” I repeated after a suitable length of silence.  “It feels like a small gesture in return for all you’ve done for me.”  Awakened me, saved me, kept me grounded through my fantasies and fits of hopelessness, broken his back laboring so that he and I could live comfortably…  Tending to and doting on him seemed like the very smallest thing in the world compared to it all.

For my happiness he placed a hand on my thigh -not knee since that was where the tray was still carefully balanced- and patted it reassuringly.  I expected another long explanation of how he minded not the work, how what he’d done was hardly remarkable, how I was working just as hard as him, but all of these would have been lies and only serve to heighten the differences between Alec’s definition of hard work and my own.  Instead he gave my leg another pat, let the continual rain pour outside for a few lovely beats of time, and said after a small, contented sigh, “Thank you.”

Had the breakfast tray not been perched between us I felt that Alec may very well have fed his arms beneath mine and pinned me down against the bed with another rib-cracking hug.  But as it was we simply smiled at one another and ate in the comfortable quiet of the morning, discussing what chores absolutely needed to be done now that we had time.  And they would be done, eventually; the turkeys and hens fed, the fire stoked and fueled, the breakfast dishes cleaned.  They would all be done, eventually.  The bed would be left, eventually.


End file.
